Kapitel 1- Historiografische Bedeutung
TEXTILE FREQUENZEN:
2026
Tonaufnahme zur Audioinstallation im Ausstellungsraum
Produktion und Konzeption:
Velina Taskova
Lisa Maria Kocher
Die forschungsbasierte Audioinstallation «Textile Frequenzen» besteht aus einer sorgfältig kuratierten Sammlung von Interviewausschnitten, die einen vielfältigen Einblick in lokale sowie nationale Textilgeschichten wiedergeben. Rapperswil-Jona bildet dabei den zentralen Ausgangspunkt, wobei das auditive Erlebnis auch über die Stadtgrenzen hinaus diesen textilen Verstrickungen nachspürt. Thematisch werden unter anderem die schweizerische Textilindustrie, die sozialpolitischen Bedeutungen und womögliche Leerstellen im historiografischen Diskurs beleuchtet. Entlang der Gewässer spinnen sich die Erzählungen der drei interviewten Expert*innen und werden letztlich in einen globalen Kontext verwoben.
[EN]
The research-based audio installation “Textile Diaries” consists of a carefully curated collection of interview excerpts that offer a multifaceted insight into local and national textile histories. Rapperswil-Jona serves as the central starting point, though the auditive experience traces these textile entanglements and reaches beyond the town’s borders. Thematically, the project sheds light on topics such as the Swiss textile industry, its socio-political meaning, and potential gaps in historiographical discourses. The narratives of the three interviewed experts unfold along the waterways and are ultimately woven and embedded into a global context.
Expert*innen/Experts:
- Marianne Burki (Kunst- und Architekturhistorikerin, Leiterin TaDa)
- Peter Röllin (Kultur- und Kunstwissenschaftler)
- Nora Baur (Kunsthistorikerin, Restauratorin, Leiterin Museum Neuthal)
Transcript in EN:
PROLOGUE – textile frequencies
Lina & Lisa Maria:
Hello. We are Lina and Lisa Maria – the curators and producers of this research-based audio installation you are currently listening to. With “Textile Frequencies” we invite you on a collective journey through woven fabrics and intertwined narratives.
Based on three separately conducted interviews, the resulting and carefully curated collection offers a multifaceted insight into local, national, and even global textile histories and industries. Rapperswil-Jona serves as the central starting point from which we trace these textile connections beyond the city’s borders.
Our three interview partners bring different areas of expertise and shed light in the various chapters on topics that fascinate and move them. Their thought-provoking ideas unfold along the waterways and are intended to encourage us to share our own knowledge of textiles and engage in collective exchange.
We hope you enjoy listening and that it sparks stimulating conversations!
Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Peter Röllin
My name is Peter Röllin. I was born in St. Gallen in 1946 and am a cultural and art historian. That means I am a lecturer, curator, writer, researcher, and expert. I wrote my dissertation at the University of Zurich on the topic “Stadtveränderung und Stadterlebnis im 19. Jahrhundert”. [So, I discovered my interest in the field of textile history, on the one hand, through my dissertation, and on the other hand, in 1989 through my exhibition “Stickerei-Zeit – Kultur und Kunst in St. Gallen 1870 bis 1930” at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen.]
Nora Baur
My name is Nora Baur. I am the director of the Museum Neuthal in the Zurich Oberland. I’ve been doing this job for five years now; my responsibilities here are very diverse, and I’m part of a wonderful team – especially the hundred active volunteers who keep this museum alive.
Marianne Burki
My name is Marianne Burki. I am an art and architecture historian and as a professional background I have quite a broad range of practical experience. That means I’ve worked in museums and archives – I’ve worked as a journalist – I helped establish the Kunsthaus Langenthal – and I’ve spent many years working in the field of cultural funding.
I work for museums, exhibitions and, among other things, as the director of TaDA – Textile and Design Alliance.
TaDA – Textile and Design Alliance – is a cultural funding program launched in 2020 by the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Thurgau, and St. Gallen. The goal was to highlight the textile heritage and its cultural as well as industrial significance for this region.
And where does your fascination with textiles come from?
Peter Röllin
I’m already very interested in the words textile, texture, and text. In Latin, “texere” means to weave or tobraid. That means it’s actually a very early form of a network, and that’s why I’m naturally interested in the whole term – from texture to text to textiles.
It’s actually a word that embodies a very extensive network. Whether it’s a text meant to be read or a textile that you can physically touch.
Nora Baur
When it comes to the present, it encompasses everything related to the museum here – that is, the textile industry and the cotton industry here in the Zurich Oberland. The Neuthal Museum was a spinning mill starting in 1827 and later also served as a weaving mill in the 20th century. Therefore, it is an authentic place that represents the textile industry here in the region, but for us it undoubtedly extends beyond the region as well; it shows how the textile industry was embedded in Switzerland and how an entire ecosystem functioned around such an industrial site. In that sense, it’s more about the processes behind it: How is raw cotton turned into finished yarn? How does the weaving process work? But it’s also very much about the machines in the background – or rather, in the foreground. How the machine industry was linked, and in some cases still is, to the production of textiles.
I consider us less of a textile museum and more of a museum that exhibits industrial culture and history – economic and social history –, always in relation to the textile industry in Switzerland. In that sense, the product is important, but it is only one part of the whole.
Marianne Burki
It’s incredibly fascinating to see the qualities textiles can have, because textiles are stable, yet [at the same time] flexible. As a material, it’s incredibly versatile. There are fabrics that we wouldn’t necessarily call textiles anymore, but which are also created through weaving, crocheting, stitching, and knitting. It’s an amazing material that can be stiff, it can be firm – it can be soft and firm – it can take on an incredible range of qualities. That’s why it’s fascinating both philosophically and in terms of the material itself.
CHAPTER I – historiographical interweavements
To what extent was Switzerland linked to the textile industry in the 19th and 20th centuries?
Peter Röllin
The 19th and 20th centuries marked a huge boom – especially the 19th century. But textiles date back to prehistoric times: People needed to clothe themselves, so they wove and braided fabrics. Linen was very important, while cotton didn’t really take off here until the 18th century. Linen was then replaced by cotton fabrics at the end of the 18th century. This led to the rise of fabric printing, but also – and this is very important for Eastern Switzerland – embroidery.
Marianne Burki
Well, I think that in the 19th and 20th centuries, large parts of Switzerland were involved in the textile industry. In Zurich, it was mainly the silk industry, but in the eastern and northern cantons – that is, in Schaffhausen or Glarus, the two Appenzell, and also St. Gallen, Thurgau, and Liechtenstein – these are all very important centres of textile production. It varies quite a bit; for example, whether machine production plays a significant role; whether it’s actually the manufacture of textiles – such as linen in the early days, and later cotton; whether it’s weaving, embroidery – such as St. Gallen lace – but also other products.
Nora Baur
For me, it’s the various centres – when you look at Europe, though this applies just as much to Switzerland – that there are centres specializing in different textile techniques: Whether it’s around St. Gallen or the Glarus region with cloth printing, or of course the Basel area with ribbon weaving, or the Zurich silk industry – and then cotton in the Zurich Oberland as well. This is how specializations emerged, though one shouldn’t generalize too broadly, because there was also silk fabric production in the Zurich Oberland. Even if [this] wasn’t as significant as around Lake Zurich, it did exist.
What is the historical significance of this (Eastern) Swiss textile industry?
Marianne Burki
Generally speaking, if you were to ask people in Switzerland today, “What significance does the textile industry hold?”, many of them wouldn’t know its historical importance.
But yes, the textile industry is absolutely central to Switzerland – to the country’s entire development. Even if its impact hasn’t been – and isn’t – equally significant in all regions.
Peter Röllin
[It is worth noting] the material that has changed: from linen to cotton. Cotton arrived in Switzerland via Italy at the end of the 18th century. That is, cotton from Egypt, from the Orient, and later also from China. And this [cotton] was initially woven by hand into linen.
With the first mechanization of embroidery around 1828 – an invention originating in Alsace – production increased and accumulated significantly. Then, in the 1880s, automatization emerged: Saurer developed embroidery machines in Arbon that were already automated.
Marianne Burki
Of course, we could also talk about how complex it was to achieve the same quality with machines as was possible by hand. It’s a truly fascinating process: How long it took to produce the quality of handmade lace using machines – and how, in some cases, that quality was never actually achieved. Even today: Handmade lace in the highest segment of fashion is, of course, still the most precious. It’s that craftsmanship and precision – if someone truly knows how to do that – then it’s just not that easy [to imitate by machine].
Peter Röllin
Switzerland has existed in this form since the Helvetik – and in its current form since the Federal Constitution of 1848 – and even then, embroidery was already at the forefront: Until World War I, embroidery from Eastern Switzerland was the country’s most important export. Those were enormous sums, and [embroidery from Eastern Switzerland] was more important [among other export goods] than the machinery industry. This significance also helps us to better understand the crisis; why this crisis affected the entire economy and society [of Switzerland] so profoundly [to this extent] in the years 1914 to 1920 and beyond.
What changes have occurred in textile production in (Eastern) Switzerland over time?
Marianne Burki
With industrialization – early industrialization – society, of course, underwent a complete transformation. And what certainly became a pressing issue was public health, because those working conditions, including those in the dyeing industry, were not conducive to good health. That’s a very illustrative example.
Peter Röllin
[This thriving textile industry in Switzerland] began to decline due to globalization and the overall development of the textile industry. In other words, the emergence of low-wage production and mass-produced goods in East Asia later brought about a major turning point.
But the [end of] textile industry in Eastern Switzerland, was already caused by World War I. Because embroidery was a monoculture: People knew almost nothing else; in Eastern Switzerland, practically every family was involved in embroidery.
Marianne Burki
And we also talked about the crises in the textile industry: When I started reading more about it, I was actually a bit confused because these boom periods didn’t last for decades. It was always a very fast cycle. The dilemma is that when Saurer sold embroidery machines abroad, within just ten years it became competition for those who wanted to sell or produce embroidery and lace – if someone had the same machine. So, it’s all very fragile. It’s very fragile; how long can I really make money with the same innovation, and when do I have to start something new? Especially with embroidery machines, you don’t invent something new that quickly, and weaving has also remained weaving. How can I still stay innovative in that context? Those were always relatively short-lived booms because you had to invent something new right away.
And how does Rapperswil-Jona fit into this national textile history in the 19th and 20th centuries?
Peter Röllin
When we talk about Rapperswil-Jona, we’re referring to spinning mills – not embroidery. These spinning mills primarily spun cotton, which is used for clothing. In other words, the spinning mills were affected by the embroidery crisis insofar as there was no longer a need for these embroidered fabrics – but the spinning mills [continued to produce yarn for the manufacture of clothing].
In Rapperswil-Jona in particular, the first spinning mill was put into operation very early on, around 1803, by Christian Näf from Toggenburg. Incidentally, this was the very first spinning mill building within the borders of today’s canton of St. Gallen, [located] along the old Stadtbach stream and along what is today called Spinnereistrasse.
Further along this exact Spinnereistrasse is the Braendlin spinning mill, which began operations in 1811. This was another example of such connections: A woman named Braendlin married this Näf, and they became in-laws; families supported one another through marriage. And [the] Braendlin [company] grew to be very, very large. Later, around 1832, the Braendlin brothers also acquired a 50% stake in the Uznaberg spinning mill – between Schmerikon and Uznach – which still exists today. With this expansion, Braendlin – alongside Kunz in the canton of Zurich – became one of the largest spinning companies in German-speaking Switzerland.